June 13, 2017, Kanteerava stadium, Bengaluru, India vs the Kyrgyz Republic: The game’s at 0-0 in the 69th minute when Sunil Chhetri picks the ball off the toes of Mohammed Rafique, about ten yards outside his own penalty box, and sets off. Midfielder Irsailov Akhlidin comes sliding in from behind, but a hop and skip and Chhetri’s past him. The touch that accompanies the skip, though, looks a tad heavy and Tamirlan Kozubaev, who had been bullying India all game, comes steaming in from defence. Chhetri sees him coming, touches the ball one way and goes the other. A chasing Dulshobekov Baktylar puts in another slide tackle, but it’s casually brushed away. He then sweeps the ball forward to Jeje Lalpekhlua, runs onto the delightfully chipped return, and smashes it in, on the volley.

July 5, 2023, Kanteerava stadium, Bengaluru, India vs Kuwait: The 38th minute of the game, India are trailing 0-1 as they set up the high press. Incessant pressure from Ashique Kuruniyan deep in the Kuwaiti third finally pays off and Abdullah Al Bloushi loses the ball. India move into sixth gear immediately: Ashique cuts inside from the left, moving a touch backwards before firing the ball in the general direction of Chhetri, who’s stationed just outside the Kuwait box. Chhetri runs toward it, attracting the attention of the entire defence, and with one touch releases Sahal Abdul Samad down the blind inside-left channel. Clean through on goal, he waits for Abdulrahman Marzouq to rush off his line before calmly passing it sideways, where Lallianzuala Chhangte slides it into an empty net from three yards out.

Two goals, two different tales

The 2017 Kanteerava goal sealed a 1-0 win for India, and with it participation in the 2019 Asian Cup. The 2023 goal brought India level to 1-1, and they would then go on to win the SAFF Championships via penalties. Memorable, momentous goals separated by six years but with one crucial difference: the Kyrgyz goal was all Chhetri (with a dash of Jeje), the Kuwait one was all India, the collective.

This past Tuesday, India were proactive, entertaining, and fun: words that haven’t been associated with Indian football in a long time. Their attacking movement was coordinated and cohesive; players given the freedom to do what they want but within the framework set up by the coaching staff. The instant one-touch passing of the equaliser was as brilliant as the movement that made it possible — Chhetri dropping into the #10 role, Sahal running in ahead of him, Chhangte occupying a traditional centre-forward’s position. It’s the kind of football that lifts people off their seats. Football lover or not, whether you could reel off IM Vijayan’s stats or knew what the PK in PK Banerjee stood for, you were on your feet, screaming and shouting and dancing. You didn’t need any previous affinity with this team to fall in love with them. This is how fans-for-life are made.

They saw their team get punched and get back up, stand toe-to-toe, and fight. Even if India faltered a bit in the immediate aftermath of Kuwait’s stunningly taken opener, they regained their composure soon and stuck to what they have been doing for a while now. At no point did they resort to route-one football. Nor did they drop their defensive line into the six-yard area against opponents who were sharp. Instead, they “remained calm and believed in themselves,” as multiple members of the team told the press after the match.

That belief translated to patience… and so, they looked for the extra pass. Made the audacious dribble. It’s what made Jeakson Singh, nominally a defensive midfielder, pop up at the edge of the box frequently. It’s what gave him the confidence to not only outmuscle a bigger opponent late in extra time but slip away from the challenge that followed with an elastico and a nutmeg. It’s what saw Anwar Ali dictate the tempo of the passing game from centre-back and then saw Mehtab Singh do much of the same when Anwar had to go off injured. As Sandesh Jhingan said ahead of the final: the actors change, the script remains the same.

Rigidity vs freedom

In 2017, India played a good old 4-4-2 with central midfielders there to protect the back four, fullbacks who remained firmly in line with their centre-backs and wingers who were more auxiliary defenders than anything. The match was dotted with long balls attempted to Jeje and Chhetri — both half a foot shorter than their markers, both still consistently winning their duels — last-ditch challenges and blocks from the Indians and a seeming apathy to keep the ball on the ground in midfield. This came about due to a combination of coaching philosophy, player ability, and match attitude but the end-result was that the game was turgid, slow, and frequently broken up.

Everything depended on Chhetri doing something utterly magical, and Jeje helping him out when the need arose. If he did it, India won, the crowd were broken out of their stupor, and things were all well with Indian football. If he didn’t… it took stubborn loyalty to Indian football to sit through the full ninety. The kind of allegiance that comes with a lot of hope, and very little expectation. There was a good reason behind why the Kanteerava was not at capacity on that night.

The 2023 vintage is… different. Playing a fluid 4-2-3-1, India pressed high consistently, moved the ball around at pace — along the ground and through midfield — and didn’t wait for things to happen. Take, for instance, the difference in average position Sandesh Jhingan had held in 2017 vs the one he held six years later. Where he had been either at the edge of, or well inside, his own penalty area in 2017, he was about halfway to the halfway line in 2023. In those twenty odd yards lay the secret behind a sold-out Kanteerava.

Behind-the-scenes, a lot has changed domestically over these past half-a-dozen years. League teams coached by attack-minded Spaniards and Englishmen and Serbians play front-foot football. Players are trusted to keep the ball on the ground and not hoof it forward the moment it gets a little sticky. And this has slowly started to seep into the national footballing conscious.

Hope, and now, expectation

Now, yes, Chhetri is still key. The Kyrgyz goal had been his 54th in national colours and he’s on 92 now. He still scores most of India’s goals (five out of the eight scored by India in these SAFF Championships) but these days it feels more like a product of what India are doing as a whole: of course Chhetri scores, he’s the centre-forward, that’s his job. But he rarely has to start moves at the edge of his own box these days. He doesn’t have to dribble past half a team on his own. He can remain in and around the opposition box and the ball will find him. When he has it at his feet, there are always multiple options – either beside him or ahead of him. These days, India seems to score through Chhetri, not (only) because of him.

India are on a 11-game unbeaten streak this year, and yes, these were relatively easy games. Winnable games. (Much) Tougher tests lay in front of the team: at the King’s Cup, at the reborn Merdeka… at the Asian Cup; but they have more voices in support than ever before. Now, it’s not a begrudging loyalty that’s powering it, not just blind hope that one man can pull off a miracle.

After a long, at times bleak wait, Indian football has finally caught up with Sunil Chhetri.